Page 80 of Ride a Cowboy

“Man who drove you that night said he dropped the three of you off at Sadie’s place. Said you looked pretty chummy.”

“Chummy?” Joel’s mom asked.

“Also heard you two have been showing up at Cruisers at closing time. Suppose you’re going to tell me it’s just a coincidence you picked the nights when I wasn’t there.”

That was no coincidence at all. Sadie had given them the nightly work schedule and told them exactly when to come.

“We’re friends, Mr. Milligan.” Joel didn’t have a clue how to get out of this.

Mr. Milligan crossed his arms. “That all?”

Joel didn’t want to lie. It didn’t come easy to him, didn’t sit right. Because in just a few short days, he knew he could never return to being merely friends with Sadie. He was crazy about her. At some point, he’d have to figure out what to do with those feelings because he’d backed himself into a corner—agreeing to a no-strings fling and including Oakley in the equation. He was fucked six ways to Sunday.

“Yep,” Oakley answered, finally joining the conversation. Oakley teased Joel about his bad habit of being “honest to a fault”. Meanwhile, Oakley was a master at stretching the truth. “We’ve asked her out about a thousand times each. She keeps turning us down. You got any advice for us, Mr. Milligan?”

Oakley’s guileless grin didn’t fool anyone.

“Yeah,” Mr. Milligan said, suddenly appearing a foot taller. “Stay the hell away from my daughter. She’s too good for either one of you.”

“What’s going on with you and Sadie?” Mom asked Joel point-blank.

This conversation kept going from bad to worse.

Joel winced. “What Oakley said. We’re friends.”

“But you’d like it to be more?”

So much more.

Before he could reply, his mom turned to Mr. Milligan. “Sadie works in your bar, is that correct?”

Mr. Milligan nodded, clearly reconsidering his timing. He’d wanted to scare the shit out of him and Oakley, but he’d failed to take Joel’s mom’s presence into account.

“She’s the girl with the tattoos and the earring right here?” His mother tapped her nose to demonstrate.

“Yeah. She is.” Mr. Milligan’s tone dared his mother to make a disparaging comment about either, but that clearly wasn’t his mother’s intent.

“I met her at a wedding last December. She was working the bar there. They had one of those Keurig coffee machines set up. I couldn’t figure it out for the life of me. Sadie taught me how to use it and made me a cup. You have a lovely girl, Mr. Milligan.”

Some of the aggression in Sadie’s dad diminished at that. “She bartends part-time for special events, to make extra money.”

“Are you and Oakley bothering this girl?” Mom asked him.

“No, Mom,” Joel said, his temper sparking though he tried to remain cool. He was a grown-ass man, whether she wanted to believe it or not. “We aren’t.”

“Mmmhmm.” It was a typical reply. Whenever she didn’t believe him, she gave him that damn hum that let him know she’d be praying for his soul at mass. Joel tried to recall the last time his mother had paid him a compliment. It had been…years.

She turned back to Mr. Milligan. He cast a pretty big shadow over her, yet in this instance, his mother looked three times bigger than the giant standing next to her.

“You’ve raised a fine daughter.”

“Thank you, Ms. Rodriguez.” For a second, Joel thought Mr. Milligan actually blushed, but that could be remnants of the anger that sent him over here to threaten him and Oakley.

Oakley looked as bewildered as Joel by the exchange. “Uh, we gotta go…do some stuff,” his friend said in what was probably the most awkward attempt at escape ever.

“I’ll see you Sunday, Joel,” his mother said. “Goodbye, Mr. Milligan. Oakley.” The last name was added with the same unimpressed look she always reserved for Oakley.

Mr. Milligan tipped his hat once more, and then shot them a deadly look before heading off in the opposite direction.

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